Trust Hollywood to not only pick up on but also glorify parents' desperate belief that their children are destined for superstardom. Two years ago there was a show hosted by former child star Danny Bonaduce (not exactly a poster boy for mental health) called "I Know My Kid Is a Star" and an even more recent incarnation titled, "My Kid Is Gonna Be Famous." I tripped over these eccentricities while watching "The Soup" which satirizes talk and reality shows. It showed a clip of a mom nagging her daughter to point her toe while bounding across the floor in some sort of dance move. The mother was distressed that she couldn't get her daughter to point that toe, no matter what she said, as if pointing her toe would be the difference between obscurity and fame. Unfortunately, the mom apparently missed the important big picture – her daughter couldn't dance, pointed toe or not.

Such is the plight of parenting. We want success for our children. So we look for glimmers of that success in everything they do, as soon as they do it. If six year old Molly figures out how to dribble to the goal our pride opens up a vista where Molly scores the winning goal in the 2024 Olympics. No matter that Molly also "excels" at blowing bubbles and climbing trees. Once we focus on the future we begin to orchestrate that future supplanting fun with work. Slowly, insidiously we become that mom harping over our own "pointed toe" situation. Our anxiety that somehow our child will fall behind in the competitive scenario overrides our common sense. In a world that offers up Justin Bieber, Brazilian soccer prodigies, and ten year old opera singers, it's difficult not to see the same potential in our own darlings. And there are plenty of vultures willing to encourage that dream.

This fall a Colorado company released a kit that parents can purchase to test their child's DNA specifically for the ACTN3 gene that apparently affects speed and endurance. When studying elite athletes a group of scientists in Australia noticed that those with great speed had the R variant of the gene and those with great endurance had the X variant. In 2004 this test was made available in Australia and has now come to America. For $149 a parent can buy the test, take a swab of their child's mouth, and in a few weeks discover which type of sport the child should pursue. But a study by a team at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse of the predictability of such a test determined that many elite athletes are actually missing both variants of the gene. And no longitudinal study has yet to be done to see if what the test predicted proved to be true for those kids who took the test. As one researcher at UW-LC suggested, a better test would be "Just line them up with their classmates for a race and see which ones are the fastest." That's the common sense approach.

Expensive sport's development camps make tremendous claims about their ability to take your child from hum drum to spectacular all for a price requiring a second mortgage. Their brochures sizzle with testimonials from past attendees who went on to win the World Series or Olympic Gold. Every parent needs to approach those claims with a skeptical eye. While many sport's development camps can certainly improve your child's strength, endurance, and skills, they can't sell different genes. So much of success in any venture depends on variables over which few of us have control. If your child appears on scale to top out at 5' 4" he or she will probably not be a basketball star. Consider the camps for what they are, not for what you hope they will be. They are places to improve as a player; they are not places to ensure your child's place in history. For every camper who went on to have a Super Bowl ring, 1000 went on to settle for a class ring, and that exemplary participant probably would have achieved what he or she achieved with or without the camp.

The website Wiki-How has an article titled "How to Turn Your Child into a Soccer Star" (http://www.wikihow.com/Turn-Your-Child-Into-a-Soccer-Star). The article is actually pretty good and really has nothing to do with turning your child into a star. But the title certainly is provocative. Gomestic.com had a great article (http://gomestic.com/family/does-your-child-have-an-athletes-mindset/) on your child's athletic mindset which the author, T. Edward, feels is the best predictor of a child's athletic future than anything else. He argues that if a child isn't mentally involved in the sport both on and off the field, he or she probably isn't going to excel in that sport or possibly any sport. He argues that parents ignore their child's mindset because they are caught up in the Pro Athlete Dream State (PADS), over assessing their child's athletic ability, blinded by their own ambition. PADS parents confront coaches about playing time, criticize their children for the most minor of mistakes, and are easily disappointed by even good results. PADS parents exist everywhere. We see them on the sidelines coaching every move of their kids, taking on the referees when calls aren't going their way, and greeting their child after the game with an immediate assessment of what went wrong. If we are honest, we would admit that we have all fallen prey to the PADS label at some point in our children's lives. We need to be able to put that behind us and become supportive, accepting parents who don't need to validate our worth by our kids' achievements.

In "The Soup" clip, I found it delightful that the child, despite the constant carping, appeared to be enjoying her leaps, twists, and frolics. She happily continued her dance moves without regard to form and embraced the wildness of her actions. While mom wanted perfection, daughter achieved joy. Fame, whatever that translates to, will be on her own terms. With that yardstick, all our kids will be famous.

The most watched Super Bowl ever between the Pittsburg Steelers and that team from Wisconsin has entered the history books with 111 million television viewers plus those 450 dislocated ticket holders. With ostensibly one out of every three U.S. citizens tuned into the game, it shows not only the power of sports in our lives but also the power of excellent marketing, which makes the Super Bowl a must-see event, bordering on a national holiday. In contrast, 24 million U.S. viewers tuned in to see the World Cup final between Spain and Netherlands this past summer. That's well beneath Super Bowl numbers, but nonetheless a respectable audience. World-wide, the numbers were in the 28 billion (yes with a "B") range. Between the 2002 and 2006 World Cup U.S. viewership increased 38%. Still, the tradition of plopping down on the couch or bellying up to the bar on an autumn Sunday afternoon to watch an NFL match-up far overshadows any rush to see Liverpool vs. Arsenal.

Our kids may play soccer, but our heart still belongs to football, basketball, and baseball. It's difficult to rev up for a televised college soccer match the same way we get excited about watching Alabama take on Auburn in football. If we don't expect our kids to continue in soccer, then investing time to see a televised game seems unnecessary. So why watch soccer? Actually, good reasons abound.

If you are anything like most soccer parents, you don't have a lot of experience with soccer. Some parents, who themselves played youth soccer, have now become part of its exponential growth by encouraging their children to participate. But despite playing a few years as kids, most parents have little other soccer immersion. That's true with most sports. We got our expertise and passion for the sport, not by playing, but by watching. Therefore it makes sense that watching soccer games would give us all an education. Not only does it help us understand the rules, but it also gives us perspective on how much talent we should expect from our kids and how much talent they will need to develop to play at the higher levels. Watching soccer helps us parents with the context for the sport. Just like we need to learn what the appropriate developmental mileposts are for our kids in life, we need to learn what those mileposts are for soccer. By becoming immersed in the sport, we learn the boundaries for our expectations. It might even help us relax when it comes to our kids. We can appreciate how good they really are without having unreal expectations of how good we think they should be.

Sharing a televised soccer game with our kids has the same effect that sharing any activity with our kids provides. They feel supported. When you validate soccer by watching games, you demonstrate your pride in their activity. You also set up that wonderful conspiratorial connection of having a special joint interest. Together you learn about players, teams, rivalries, and champions. On May 28th the UEFA Champions League Final will be played at Wembley Stadium. Right now, teams are in the knock-out stage after enduring a long road through qualifying, play-offs and group stages which began last June. These games involve the top teams in Europe and the top players. The League itself carries almost as much prestige as the World Cup due to the caliber of the competition. Most cable and satellite carriers provide coverage of these games, which would be an interesting and educational couple of hours to share. Together you can develop team loyalties, make predictions on winners, and exercise your analytical skills while discussing the plays you see.

If your child wants to pursue soccer, it's important that he or she get immersed in the sport. There are cultural, athletic, and motivational aspects to the sport that have to be experienced. Not everyone has the financial resources to go watch an English Premier League or World Cup game live, but we can all watch a game on TV. Just as a kid who plays basketball benefits from watching skilled players compete on the court, a kid who loves soccer gains from watching as many matches as possible. Coaches often talk about kids needing to develop soccer brains, understanding the game well enough to see the field and anticipate positioning and plays. Most players around the world have the benefit of being immersed in soccer since it dominates the hearts, minds, and viewing schedules of fans. In the U.S. kids can go days without having any soccer exposure. Part of the U.S. becoming a force in international play will be the ability of our players to have that all-embracing soccer experience. For the moment, we need to depend on televised soccer to help fill the void.

I'm a soccer junkie now, although I didn't start out that way. As my kids continued their interest in the sport, I continued watching matches. I learned so much about the sport by watching games other than just those my kids played in. I learned how rough the sport becomes as they advanced in age and talent. I learned how passionate the fans can be. I learned to appreciate games that ended up 0-0 because I learned to understand the athleticism and team tactics behind holding onto that score. I learned to recognize Ronaldo from Cristiano Ronaldo. I learned to share conversations with my kids who talked trades, upsets, and championships in the world of soccer like some kids talk about cars. I learned that soccer can be a way for a family to bond. No matter what my kids do in the future when it comes to soccer, sharing some chips, guacamole, and an EPL match with my children creates some wonderful moments of family bonding.

I could not have expressed these thoughts better myself. Here are comments from a youth coach on the stair-step approach to soccer for youth players from Horst Wein (a US Youth Soccer Workshop presenter in 2006 by the way) and the US Youth Soccer document "Vision". The last line is a question for you to contemplate.

Since the moment I first read Horst Wein's "Developing Youth Football Players" in 2007, he has been one of my biggest youth soccer coaching influences and inspirations. My youth coaching philosophy is heavily "Horst Wein-ian" influenced. He's helped to bolster my self-confidence and intelligence, and help me to put aside my ego, tap into my humility, and try to be the kind of youth coach who is perceptive enough of my youth players to recognize when I must be flexible and adapt, change, modify and experiment in order to attempt to meet their ever changing and unique needs.

I really liked your "Vision" article. I'll share it with my team and forward it to my club's president and some of the other coaches I know. It should be mandatory reading for every youth soccer coach and should be part of every coaching course/license/certificate curriculum. The best coaches I've met and worked with live and work the "Vision". The coach I try to be lives and works the "Vision".

It's a shame that some of those who run our youth soccer organizations and/or teach coaching courses all over the country, often give lip service to, or don't understand/believe or use the many important topics and concepts you cover in your article. Their programs, players, and youth soccer in the U.S. suffer for their lip service and rubber stamping.

You may be familiar with the English FA's skills assessment program called "Soccerstar Challenge" (http://www.fa-soccerstar.com/). I like the utility of the individual tests for establishing a player's baseline and being able to show personal improvement through the season. However, I think the "stars" comparison rating system of each individual's scores against the scores in the "Soccerstar Challenge" database is interesting but not very useful to me.

Too many children don't get the chance to develop or grow their potential for playing, and/or enjoying soccer because there are not enough "Vision" and "Horst Wein-ian" adults and coaches who can help them begin to realize this potential.

Could you be one of the coaches who can help them?

If you would like to receive a copy of the Vision document then just drop me a line and I'll be glad to send a copy to you.

Once a year we're expected to help our son ask his entire kindergarten class to please be his valentine. I'm not sure how sincere a box of Transformer valentines can be with messages such as You're My Optimus Prime Valentine or Bumble Bee Mine scrawled across massive rough-hewn metallic creatures. But woe be to the boy or girl who doesn't bring a valentine for every member of the class. Likewise woe be to any half of a couple who forgets to get at the bare minimum a card. Declaring undying devotion once a year seems to be the least we can do!

All of which points out the obvious irony of celebrating such a day. There are 364 other days of the year that don't carry any duty to declare our love. We can't forget February 14, but we have a pass on the other days (anniversaries excepted). I would argue it's all the other days, the days we aren't obligated to profess our love, that we need to step up and show our appreciation, and very importantly show it to our kids.

We have lots of opportunities to express our love and pride to our children, but we don't always recognize or use those moments. We can do the note slipped into the lunch bag or the big hugs as they get off the bus. We can recognize the good things they do like saying thanks when they perform expected chores and even more especially when they do the unexpected. Spontaneously telling them we love them helps create good self images. Resisting the urge to make corrections and just accept the way things are with praise and thanks becomes one of the hardest things to do. When we ask our kids to clean their rooms, we need to not show disappointment, but say thank you even if it's not clean to our exacting standards.

As parents we take our role as educator and disciplinarian seriously, which often leads to life lessons and corrections. Youth sports only exacerbate these behaviors because it's just a short leap from parenting to coaching. So our immediate reaction to practices, games, and preparation can end up being negative even though we have good intentions. Keeping the idea of a daily valentine in mind can help us find the positives before we leap to the negatives. Give a verbal valentine by saying "You really did a great job of dribbling," or "The coach loved how well you listened" and then adding "I love you." When the team loses a game, resist offering suggestions on how they could have done better or commiserating over the loss right away. Instead point out a positive such as "I'm so proud of how well you passed." And don't forget the healing power of a hug even for the boys.

Several teams encourage their parents to form a human tunnel through which the kids run following a game. That's a positive way to show support win or lose. For older players parents can offer high fives to everyone. Finding opportunities to convey love and pride for our young players can go a long ways to insuring that they continue a positive interest in their sport. Some families have a chalkboard or dry erase board in their kitchen for lists and reminders. Use the board to also write a valentine message such as "Have a great game" or "You're a special kid." It seems so simple, but it makes a huge impact.

Rewarding good behaviors with fun activities can be another valentine to give our kids. If the team has a huge loss, find and celebrate a positive in the event such as having good sportsmanship or not giving up and scoring a goal near the end of the game. Rather than making a trip to get ice cream a consolation prize for losing, make it a reward for some good deed. Give hugs before games since they are unconditional. Say "love you" as often as you say your child's name. When my kids were little we used to signal one another with the sign language for "I love you" which is thumb, first finger, and pinky extended with the middle two fingers folded down to the palm. We flashed the sign as they left on the bus, ran onto the field, and during games. Even today if we are up in the bleachers and the boys look up to find us, I'll raise the sign and they'll return it. Most importantly we need to use the unexpected times to pass out a verbal or written valentine.

While Transformers, Harry Potter, or Barbie may not say "I love you" sincerely to a classroom, we can still find ways to be sincere to our kids. Whether we slip a note into our daughter's cleats or give a big hug just because our son entered the room, we have the power to keep the valentine spirit alive year round. Our kids may not remember the specific moments they got a non-valentine's day valentine, but they will feel the general spirit of love and pride that surrounds them every day of the year.